Stories by Donald Rock

Just over two years ago, Shirley Eisenberger received an email that made all of her wildest dreams come true – she was accepted to her dream school: Boston University.

She had spent the past four years of high school working diligently to achieve superb test scores, a high GPA, and an impressive collection of extracurriculars. In fact, her application was so stellar that she received a Presidential Scholarship, an award that BU says is given to “approximately five percent of our incoming freshmen who demonstrate exceptional academic achievement.” But just over a year later, all of those achievements may not be enough to keep her dream in Boston alive. More

The weather in Boston this winter has been absolutely miserable. With even more snow in the forecast, it’s very easy to feel sad and down as summer seems so far away. Rather than sulking while walking between massive mounds of snow, there are several comedy shows around Boston this month that will hopefully cheer you up. Here are the ones I’m excited for. More

3D printing technology has been growing and developing at an exponential rate. Scientists have been able to print a range of items that can dramatically improve human life, ranging from organ tissues to rocket engines. More

After months of anticipation, Boston’s college students have finally finished their classes and are well into their winter breaks. Although weeks of wearing pajamas all day, eating every possible thing in the kitchen, and sitting in front of the TV for days at a time can be relaxing, it is a stark transition from the rigorous course loads of being in school. And although most students don’t miss writing papers, handing in homework assignments, or reading textbooks, they might actually miss using their brains. More

If it’s December and you’re on Facebook, your news feed is probably cluttered in crappy year-end lists. Even if it’s been a lackluster year, every publication releases an onslaught of their “Best Whatever of 2014” lists. Although you’re probably tired of seeing them, we decided to compile a list of some of the worst lists we could find on the web. More

Here in Boston, finals week is one of the few times when we expect places like Allston to quiet down a bit in the evenings. Most students lock themselves in libraries for days as they try to catch up on hundreds of pages of readings they never did, write paper after paper, and cram a semester’s worth of information into their brains before their big tests. But according to data collected by Boston-based party-planning app Wigo, 40% of students at Suffolk University didn’t let finals week stop them from partying, a percentage higher than any other college in New England. Babson College in Wellesley also made the top five in the region. More

Everyone knows that the holidays are the worst time of the year to be single. As the weather gets increasingly bitter, so do us single people. You can try to escape those cheesey holiday commercials that show couples keeping each other warm by the firesde by going out around Boston, but if you’re not careful, you can run into some pretty coupley places around the city. As a gift to my fellow single Bostonians this holiday season, I’ve come up with your guide to navigating the city in December. More

15 years ago today, a group of seven preteens jumped in front of a camera for the first season finale of “Zoom” and performed some science experiments for a TV show that would be a hallmark for most of my generation’s childhoods. The show was filmed in WGBH studios in Allston, so most Zoomers were Boston natives. We decided to look into the original cast of the show and see what they’ve been up to since the it went off air, and to see if they still remembered how to speak in Ubbi Dubbi. More

College is a pretty unique time. It’s the first taste of freedom many students have. High school pressures wear off, you get to live in a dorm instead of your parents’ house, and you have the ability to make a class schedule where you don’t ever have to wake up before noon. Simultaneously, being a college student alleviates you from many of the pressure of real adulthood. Thus, college becomes an interesting time for self-exploration, finding new hobbies, and having a lot of fun. It also becomes a time where certain activities become socially acceptable and “cool.” As anyone who has put in their four years has learned though, some of these particular activities only stay cool during the four years of college. Afterwards, they lose their magic, and forever are shuffled into that “only cool in college” category. More